question about dvd+rw

[mazinz]

i just bought a new pc at best buy using their "create a station (make your own pc). I picked up a hewlet packard and it came with the dvd+rw/cdrw combo drive, after now seeing quite a few things online, im wondering if i should return the system and get rid of that drive.
My question is this, as some reviews on here seem mixed. If i try to use a regualr dvd-r disc is this dvd+rw burenr, will the burner just sit there and do nothing, or would it give me some message such as "this is not a compatible disc, etc. I want to use write once only dvd discs and not re-writables. Any help is much appreciated. Yes, i did read the reviews on this site as well.

[RAAGAAman]

The DVD+RW does not support DVD-R media. The DVD+RW alliance will be coming out with drive that will support DVD+R media sometime around May-June timeframe. If you want to use write once DVD-R then you will need to go find a Pioneer A03/A04 or a Panasonic DVD-R/RAM drive. BTW, if you decide to keep the +RW drive it is not F/W upgradable to support +R media.

Regards

[Ermalinda]

You're out of luck with the HP DVD+RW drive if you ever want to burn on anything other than rewritables. It is designed specifically for +RW media, and moreover, there is no firmware upgrade that will allow it to write to +R (write once) media....EVER. There is a statement to this effect buried out on the HP web site. I tried the HP drive and returned it. I bought a Philips drive instead, which works like a top, and if they EVER produce +R media (they are not available as far as I know), at least the Philips WILL be able to write to that media.

Finally...note that if you really meant -R media, that will not work in any +RW/R drive on the market today as far as writing goes. +RW/R can only write to + media, and -RW/R can only write to - media.

Hope that helps.

[RAAGAAman]

HP and Philips are both in the +RW alliance. Do you really think that one drive will have a F/W upgrade to support +R and the other won't?